Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-05-23
The Old Man.

At the age of fifteen he had had
both legs crushed by a vehicle pass
ing on the Earville highway. Since
that time he had begged along the
roads, from one farm yard to anoth-
er, balancing himself upon his crutch-
es, the constant use of which had
pushed up his shoulders to a level
with his ears. His head seemed as if
buried between two hills.
In the villages they would give
him scarcely anything he was too
well known; people had become tired
of the sight of him; they had seen
him for forty long years going from
farm house to farm house, pulling his
ragged and defOrmed body along,
with the aid of his two wooden legs.
Still he did not want to go away, be-
cause all the world he knew anything
about was that one little patch of
country, with its three or four villag-
es, through which he had been drag
ging his miserable existence. He
had laid down a frontier line for his
beggarv, and he could never have
gone bevOnd the limits which he had
never accustomed himself to cross.
He did not know whether the world
70 havyOn1 ha li,,o Of
trees which had always been the
boundary of his vision. He did not
ask himself whether it did or not.
And when the peasants, weary of see
ing him always hobbling along their
fields or sitting down beside their
bitches. would shout out to him
'EWhy don't you go to the other vii
lagos instead of always crutching
about here?" he would never make
reply, but simply take himself off,
full of a vague fear of the unknown
the fear of poor creature who
breads a thousand different things in a
confused way-new faces, abuse,
the suspicious observation of people
who did not know him, and the gen
| darmes who walked the road two by
two, and the very sight of whom made
him instinctively stink behind bushes
or stone heaps.
Whenever he saw them coming in
the distance, glittering in their uni
forms under the sunlight, he would
suddenly develop an extraordinary
agility-the agility of monster-in
seeking a hiding place. He would
| tumble down from his crutches-let-
ting himself fall fiat like a rag; and
| then he would roll himself all up into
a ball, become quite little, become in
visible, lie fiat like hare in its lair,
so as to make his brown rags seem a
part of the ground that they resem-
bled in color.
Notwithstanding, he had never had
anv trouble with them in his life.
| But he had the instructive fear of
them in his blood, as though he had
| inherited the fear and cunning of
those parents whom he had never
! known.
He had no refuge, no roof, no hut,
no shelter. He slept anywhere in
summer, and in winter he slipped un-
der barns or into stables with aston
| ishing address. He always got away
in the morning before any one had
suspected his presence. He knew all
the holes through which he could get
into the farm buildings; and as the
constant use of crutches had given
him extraordinary power in his arms,
| he was able to climb hand over hand
into the hay lofts, where he would
often remain three or four days at a
time without moving-especiallv
when he had been able to collect
some provisions upon his rounds.
He lived like the beasts of the
/ fields, in the midst of men, without
knowing anybody, without loving
anybody-the feeling toward him
among the peasants ws simply one of
Indifferent contempt and resigned
hostility. They had nicknamed him
Cloche (the belly because he swung
along between his crutches like bell
between its supports.
For two whole days he had eaten
nothing at all. Nobody would give
] him bit more. People had finally
got tired of him. The peasant wo-
men at their doors would scream out
to him from a distance when they
saw him coming:
sect away from here, You old
clodchopper! Didn't l give you a
piece of bread only three days ago?"
Then he would pivot round upon
his crutches and take himself to the
neighboring house, only to be there
/ received in like manner.
From door to door the women cried
/ out
lone can't undertake to feed that
/ loafer all the year round. anyhow y
4 Nevertheless the loafer had to get
something to eat every day.
He had gone all through Saint Hill
aire, VarvilIe and Les Billettes with
ont being able To get one copper or
one hard crust of bread There was
no hope for him, consequently, ex-
cept at Tournolles; but he had TO
travel two leagues on the public high
way to get there: and he felt already
so weak that he could hardly drag
himself along, having his stomach
as empty as his pocket.